


colour bled

by dana437



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Fluff, Multi, Soulmate AU, allura and pidge are besties, allura/shiro isnt mentioned very much buts itS THERE, also i didnt spell colour wrong, and when they touch another person that colour appears on their skin, but if its their soulmate, i thought of it for klance week but haha, im in the down under so youre wrong autocorrect, im very late, lance almost DIES, lance is an astrophysics major, people's fingers and toes are painted a colour, siren!keith, so the dealio with this soulmate thing, their two colours mix
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-08-07 05:09:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7701997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dana437/pseuds/dana437
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance always wondered what it would be like when he met his soulmate. He always imagined that meeting them would be some kind of romantic encounter, like they locked eyes from across the street and just knew. Or maybe he'd run into them in a hallway, accidentally knock them over and have their colours mingle as he helped them stand. </p><p>The last thing Lance expected was almost drowning and awakening to purple prints left by red fingers littering his skin.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [finger guns] i thought of this in the middle of english and couldn't get it out of my head so here we are. i dunno if i'll make it more then one chapter????

July 1st, year 20XX

 

Lance stretched his arms high above his head with a satisfied groan. Feeling the cool breeze brush over his skin was wonderful. It had been so long since he'd been to the beach. His college was in the middle of a big city, there was very little plant life, let alone air so fresh. Lance had missed it. He turned back to grin over his shoulder. Pidge and Hunk stood nearby, each of them showing very different reactions to their current surroundings.

Hunk looked quite pleased, smiling over at the bright blue ocean. He was the type of person who was comfortable in all kinds of surroundings. That was why they were friends, he was chill. Pidge, however, looked very uncomfortable. Their shoulders were raised and they had their phone in their hands, furiously typing something out. They were probably tweeting about how this holiday was such a bad idea and they'd rather be sleeping. Lance understood that, but they were at the _ocean_. 

He turned back to watching the waves rolling over the sand and inhaled deeply. The salty smell of the waters filled his lungs and he slowly exhaled. it just felt so good to be at the beach again. Away from the streets, loud traffic and assignments... a holiday was just what he needed. What they all needed, actually. Lance turned back to his friends and walked over, sporting a bright smile still.

"Can we check into the lodge yet?" he asked excitedly. He could practically feel himself vibrating. "I can't wait to see our rooms!"

Pidge adjusted their glasses. "We can in a minute or so. If we start heading up now, Allura will probably be there," they nodded along to their own words. The three of them headed back up the sand. On the side of the road was parked Hunk's car, all their stuff cramped into the back and boot. Unfortunately, Lance had somehow been convinced to sit in the cramped back seat while Pidge backseat-drove Hunk from the passenger seat. They piled in, Lance squishing back into his seat and somehow managed to pull his seatbelt on. Curse the car's pathetic boot. Once Pidge had their seatbelt on as well, Hunk turned back into the highway, speeding up to 100k's. 

Watching the ocean run past and the waves crash against the white sand was relaxing to Lance. Even if Pidge turned up their poor taste in music right up. What even was it? Some kinda head-banger thing? Metal? Screamer? Lance really didn't know, and had learned to not question Pidge. Questioning them was ever a good idea. He focused on the ocean, feeling light and happy as the stared at the endless blue. It was so beautiful. Lance sighed softly as the car drove up a cliff side that overlooked the water. The view was amazing.

As they neared the top, Lance swore he saw something or someone bobbing through the water. He squinted as he tried to see what it was. It moved through the water fluidly, stopping at a small outcropping of rocks. Up it went, glistening red slipping out of the water and up onto the rocks. Lance almost choked on his own spit. "Is that a mermaid?!" he screeched.

"Huh? What are you talking about Lance?" Pidge looked out their window. "All I see is a diver."

Lance blinked several times and rubbed his eyes as well. He refocused. Oh. They were right. A perfectly normal person sat on the rocks, wringing the water out of their drenched black hair. Lance couldn't make out their face, but something did feel off. He shook it off. He was just giddy with excitement! There was no way that he actually saw a mermaid. Haha, that's just stupid...

Okay, yeah no, Lance was sure that the diver was a mermaid before. He'd _seen_  that red tail and he'd _seen_  the wide fins that ended it. 

Hunk slowed and parked the car between white lines. "Okay guys, we're here!" he announced, turning the car keys and pulling them out. They got out of the car, and Lance quickly walked to the edge of the cliff, staring down at the diver. Was that a man or a woman? It looked like they had a mullet or something? Why would any self-respecting person have a mullet? Unless that person wasn't actually a person, but a mermaid! Ha! Lance had it all figured out! "Lance, come get your stuff before I lock the car!" Hunk yelled. Oh. Right.

He jogged back to the car and grabbed his suitcase and bag from the backseat. Once the car had been locked (and locked three more times just to be sure. Hunk said you could never be too careful) they headed over to the building. A lovely woman stood by the door, tapping away at the touch screen of her phone. A soft, love struck smile was pulled over her lips. That was probably Pidge's Best Friend™, Allura. She looked up when she noticed their presence. "Oh! Pidge! These must be your friends."

"Yeah, this is Hunk and Lance-" Pidge tried to introduce them, but Lance took long strides forward and took one of Allura's hands into his own.

"I'm Lance, but you can call me Handsome," he purred, briefly glancing down at their hands. Her pink painted finger prints bled onto his skin while his blue crept onto hers. So she wasn't his soulmate. Lance yelped to pain as Pidge gave him a sharp elbow to the side. They grabbed his arm and ripped it away from Allura, green being left in the touches' wake.

"She's already got her soulmate dumbass" Pidge hissed. Lance held his hands up in defense. Allura simply laughed awkwardly. "Anyway, Allura. Are you sure it's okay for us to stay here for free? I mean, don't you have a business to run?"

Allura smiled with her pretty dark magenta painted lips and shook her head. "No, it's fine, really. I know how broke college students are. You need a free holiday badly. It'd just weight on both mine and Shiro's conscious if we make you pay. Besides, you're by friend."

"Speaking of Shiro, where is he? I see you both kissed earlier, but I don't see him?" 

A dark blush covered Allura's cheeks and she touched her lips. So this Shiro guy must have blank painted fingers. "Um, well, he's out the back, packing the last of our things in the car. He wants to make sure that we absolutely have everything."

"Ahhh, okay. Sounds like him."

"Anyway, here's the house keys. This one is for the front door, this one for the back door, and this one is for the stairs leading down the cliff," Allura explained, pointing to each key before handing them over to Pidge. She gave a smile. "I'll go tell Shiro that you're here. We'll be leaving shortly anyways."

Allura pushed open the unlocked door and walked into the house. The three trailed in after her. Wow, the inside was pretty spacious. The rooms were large and the walls were painted pale colours and covered in hand-made seashell decorations. All the curtains were pushed open to allow the afternoon sunlight to spill inside and light everything up. It was warm and reminded Lance of home. He could get used to it. Allura walked out to the back door, pushing it open and leaning out. "Shiro! Pidge and their friends are here!" she yelled.

Footsteps trudged over and a truly handsome man stepped into view, award-winning smile pulled over his face. His lips were the same shade as Allura's. There was no doubt that this guy was Shiro. Damn, Lance almost wished the guy was his soulmate. Shiro lent over to press a light peck to Allura's cheek before stepping past her and giving a light wave as he approached them. Just like Lance had thought, his fingers were black - well, the ones that weren't a  prosthetic anyways. "Hey Pidge! It's been awhile."

"Hey Shiro. I haven't seen you since your wedding. Oh, this is Hunk and Lance, my friends."

"It's good to meet you both," Shiro said politely, holding his hand out.

"You too," Hunk answered as he shook Shiro's hand. Warm yellow spread and black spread. 

Lance jumped as Shiro then held his hand out to him. Oh, right. Handshake. He quickly shook Shiro's hand with a grin and a 'nice to meet ya'. He often found himself getting distracted at the colours that would spread at contact. Watching it was amazing. It was like coloured dye dancing through water, even as it faded. Lance took a moment to watch as the black left on his skin faded to gray before disappearing. He tuned back in just in time to hear Allura and Shiro saying their goodbyes before they stepped out the back door. There was probably some kinda gate or something out the back that let them get there car back there. Lance wouldn't be surprised.

"I'm gonna go claim my room," Hunk announced, already walking upstairs. "The bedrooms are upstairs right?"

"Yeah, they are. But I call dibs on the master bedroom!"

"Oh no you don't!"

Somehow through the mad dash with their things upstairs and down the hall, Lance managed to burst through first and fling his things onto the double bed. Hell yeah! He'd be sleeping in luxury for the month. Hunk and Pidge both groaned in defeat as they both dragged themselves back down the hall to get their own rooms. Lance looked around the room, spotting a set of glass doors. Oooh, he had a balcony! He quickly walked over and pried the doors open. He stepped outside. Wind whipped at his face as he lend on the railing. He had a perfect view over the ocean. There was no doubt that in the morning he'd have the best view of the sunrise. That's if he managed to get up early enough to actually see it.

He gazed down at the ocean, smiling happily as he looked around. Lance could see that small outcropping of rocks from there. The one the mermaid had been on. Now there was no one there, but Lance knew what he saw! He pushed away from the railing and walked back into the room, then out and down the stairs.

"Lance? Where are you going?" Hunk called. He was in the kitchen - probably putting away the food they bought.

"I'm gonna head down to the beach!"

"Take the stairs down! Pidge left the key's in that little bowl near the front door! Also be back by six for dinner!"

"Yes mother!" Lance walked to the front door. He easily located the keys and plucked them from their place. He stepped out and closed the door behind him. As he walked towards the stairs, he squinted at he keys. Um, he thought it was the small key but now he wasn't so sure... might as well test them all. When he got to the gate that blocked him from the stairs, he aggressively stabbed each key at the keyhole until one went in. Lance stuffed them into his pocket as he headed down the stairs. Oh gods that was a lot of stairs. Well, it wasn't like he wasn't athletic or anything so he'd be fine walking down what looked like thousands of stairs. He just didn't really want to. 

As he got closer to the sand under the shadow of the cliff, Lance heard something other than the sound of the rolling waves. He focused on it. It was... singing? He got to the bottom of the stairs and followed the sound. It was coming from beyond the water. With curiosity gnawing at him, Lance pulled his shirt over his head and threw it onto the sand. He quickly threw his phone and the keys over as well - didn't want to kill his phone or loose the keys. He kicked off his flip-flops and waded into the water. Lance pushed off the sand with his feet and swam with long strokes, keeping his head above the water the best he could so he could hear the voice.

He was getting closer and closer to the rocks. That was where the voice was coming from. When he reached them, he could actually make out words. 

"You're dripping like a saturated sunrise, you're spilling like an overflowing sink~," Lance pulled himself up onto the rocks. The words were making his head spin and his eyesight fuzz. He looked down. "You're ripped at every edge but you're a masterpiece, and now you're tearing through the pages and the ink~."

Lance felt himself freeze as eyes looked back up at him. He could barely make out the person's face. But he could see dark eyes framed by dark lashes and pale skin and scarlet scales. Red fingers reached up to him, and the spell was shattered. He yelped in alarm was he was pulled forward and off the rocks. Lance hit the water with a loud splash. Air was shoved from his lungs. Bubbles rushed around him as he was pushed further under water. He could barely see with the salt stinging his eyes. But he could see the purple spreading over his arm and crest from the hands pressed there. Brilliant eyes invaded and wispy black hair invaded his vision as everything darkened and faded out.

When his eyes next opened he felt horrible. He rolled over onto his side and coughed violently, water splattering onto the hot sand. Lance gasped for air as a hand rubbed circles into his back. The touch made him tingle. Very carefully, he was helped to sit up. Lance blinked several times to clear his vision. There was a hand on his chest. Soft, small blood-red scales covered the pale skin, and fingers were dyed the same colour. A beautiful purple blossomed over his chest, and ran over the underside of the hand.

His soulmate.

Lance's head shot up, but before he could see who it was his vision was covered. "No," rang out a voice that was clearly male. "It's better if you don't know."

"Huh? What does that even mean?! You're my soulmate, why can't I-."

Smack. The hand on his chest lifted instead to hit the side of his neck. Lance fell to his side and groaned in pain, hands flying up to try and mute the pain. Before he could realize what was happening, he heard a loud splash. He looked over in time to see sparkling red scales disappear under the waves. Lance took a deep, shuddering breath.

"My soulmate is a mermaid."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the song that mr siren man was singing is 'color' by halsey. that song just gives me klance feelings


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO YEAH HI  
> i didn't know if i was ever going to end up updating this fic or actually adding another chapter at all, but i guess inspiration hit me so?????? here you go????
> 
> i will do my best to try and update every now and then! i'm not sure how long this is going to end up being but, you know, probably not very

July 2nd, year 20XX

 

Keith had messed up. He'd messed up really bad. Yesterday he'd only wanted to temporally satisfy the blazing hunger that lay in his gut with a taste of human blood, rather than try to satiate it with the salty taste of ocean critters. But the one damn human that had been dumb enough to walk over just had to be his soulmate. For the millionth time that day, Keith groaned loudly in frustration.

Everything had become that much more complicated. Sure, Keith wasn't the type of person to care much for the whole soulmate thing, but in that particular situation, he wished the concept didn't even exist. He just didn't want to force the gorgeous man to face the fact that the one supposedly made just for him was a person who turned into a half-human-half-fish when submerged, was covered in scales 24/7, and drank blood to survive.

In truth, when he'd first seen his soulmate, Keith had felt his chest and heart tighten and squeeze. The man was absolutely beautiful. Smooth dark skin, soft brown hair and expressive blue eyes. He swore it was love at first sight. But as he'd touched that stunning man, his blood red tainted his pure blue. Keith tainted him. He'd turned blue into muddy purple. At first Keith had been amazed that rather than red blooming over the man's chest, it was a striking purple. But the longer he looked, the more he hated it. Whatever he touched he ruined. He just couldn't bring himself to do more damage then necessary. Keith had hauled his soulmate out of the water and breathed live back into him. He'd left an ugly purple smeared over his lips.

Keith ran a hand through his hair to push it away from his face, frowning hard at the brown surface of the small table he sat at. Rather then continue to question why the universe was so cruel, he focused on the sound of Coran walking around the cafe. The man took his time in setting it all up - placing chairs neatly in front of tables, carefully writing out the menu on a little blackboard, checking the cash register... it then hit Keith that he was sitting in the cafe with its owner, who was his boss, and doing nothing. Sure, Coran was an understanding guy and when Keith had shown up early he'd just smiled and let him in, but he was also Keith's boss.

He hurried to get up, looked down at the tightly pressed diving suit he wore then made a dash for the back. In his haste he almost tripped over a loose plank. Coran laughed good naturedly. He finally changed into his uniform and rushed back out to help Coran set up.

"You don't have to help. If anything, you should be resting," Coran hummed in his heavy accent that was almost British but not quite. "You look like you're about to pass out!"

"I'd rather have something to do..." Keith quickly responded as he checked that the kitchen's supplies weren't down. He'd rather keep himself distracted from the events that occurred yesterday. And... he'd prefer to keep his job.

Coran whistled a little song as they went about the store. The tune of it was familiar to Keith, but he couldn't quite place his finger on it...

Wait. Keith paused and looked up at the ceiling and mouthed the words. "Everything is blue, his hands, his pills his jeans..." he murmured along to the recognizable song and felt every part of his body lock up as he realized it was that song. The bright and vivid memory of dazzling blue eyes filled with wonder looking down at him burst forward and Keith was assaulted by an onslaught of butterflies. He put his hand over his face as heat gathered in his cheeks.

"Hey-!" Keith snapped, but caught himself quickly by clearing his throat. "Hey, um... could... could you maybe, not, hum that... tha-that song?"

Coran blinked and looked over at his employee in bewilderment. "Why? Is here something wrong with it?"

"No! No, no there's nothing wrong with the song itself, but I- I just..." Keith scrambled in an attempt to un-offend his boss. But as he struggled for words, Coran just grinned at him.

"Ah, I see!" He cheered and nodded to himself surely. "Okay, I'll stop." Then he continued in his preparation for opening for the day.

That was... an odd reaction. But it wasn't the unbridled wrath that Keith expected to crash upon him. Then again, from the short time that he had been working at Voltron, he'd found Coran to be a very nice person that certainly wouldn't get upset over something such as that. Maybe Keith was thinking about how he, himself, would have reacted more. Even if the subject was incredibly trivial and didn't need to have a fuss thrown over it.

Eventually, Coran turned the little hanging sign on the glass door around to say 'open', and asked Keith to take the first shift. Apparently he needed to check up on his niece. She and her husband had supposedly taken a flight to Canada for for the holidays. And Coran, as the woman's legal guardian after her father had passed away, had made it his duty to check up on them every day. Keith wasn't too sure if she would appreciate having time with her husband continuously interrupted by a worried uncle. But it wasn't his place to say anything, so Keith just focused on doing his job correctly.

His coworkers slowly filed in as time went on, and customers ordered their drinks and deserts as they sat at the shiny tabled and chatted the hours away. Matt, one of Keith's coworkers and fairly close friend, had been gushing excitedly from the moment he had stepped inside. "Getting to see Pidge again is going to be great! They're so busy with college that they pretty much have no time to talk to me. But do you know what's even better, Keith?" he extolled, turning to grin at him so joyously that Keith was honestly worried he was going to split his face.

"Uh... I don't."

"They're coming here! They promised to bring their friends along so I can finally meet the infamous Hunk and Lance," Matt cheered, and pumped his fists into the air.

"Hunk?" Keith echoed, "is that their... actual name?"

"Apparently. But he's a pretty cool guy from what I've been told, not only that but he also totally lives up to his name," Matt explained as he finished a double shot latte for the most recent order. He placed the drink on the bench and called out the number of the order. A woman took the drik and grunted a vague thanks and tiredly trudged out of the café. Keith watched the woman leave, and vaguely saw other people walking towards the door but simply ended up ignoring it - more customers, who cares? But then Matt was quickly patting his shoulder. "Oh! Oh there they are! Can I swap with you?"

"Just because Pidge is here doesn't mean you can switch jobs Matt," Keith sighed as he looked over to see if he could spot the notorious younger sibling. Instead, he only saw a ghost of yesterday. Keith felt his jaw slacken and thick heavy anxiety crawl up his throat. Before the man could look over, Keith whipped around to Matt and babbled out quick words, "actually on second thought, yeah. I'll hide in the back and you talk to your sibling."

Matt stared after him in perplexity but his attention was pulled over to a call of his name. Instead of walking to the coffee machine, Keith bolted to the staff room. He pulled the door closed behind himself quickly and gasped for dear air. That was him. The man who he drew to him, the man who he pulled beneath the water, the man he touched and ruined. Keith stared down at his red fingers, turning his hands over and flexing them. He stopped to look at the red scales that trailed over his knuckles and up his arms. The same scales littered the corners of his eyes and the highest points of his cheek bones, his calves and shoulders. He had managed to convince Coran that they were simply tattoos he had gotten when he was younger while in a drunken haze. Keith covered his face with his hands, trying his best not to freak out. How was he meant to do his job like this? it had barely been a whole day since meeting his soulmate and it already felt like any order he used to have in his life was gone.

There was a knock on the staff room door. "Hey, Keith? Buddy? You okay?" Matt called. Oh no, he'd worried Matt. He had been way too suspicious with his escape and ended up ruining the first time in a long time in which Matt had gotten to see Pidge and talk to them properly. He felt horrible about it immediately.

"Yeah, I'm... I'm fine. I just got... really self conscious," Keith apologized as he scrambled back to his feet. He opened the door to see Matt looking at him warily.

"Why? There's no reason to be. You're my friend, and I know that you will get along with Pidge. I'm not sure about their friends, but I know them!" Matt reassured him and patted his shoulder with a warm smile. Keith opened his mouth to speak, but was promptly cut off, "if this is about your tattoos, don't worry. I've actually already told Pidge all about you, and they think that you're cool."

Keith gave Matt a small, unsure smile and a nod. Matt grinned brightly at him and pushed on his shoulder to steer him out of the staff room and out to the register. But before Keith had time to realize that the real reason he fled was standing right there, he was already in front of a mini version of Matt. They had glasses and everything. They blinked up at him for a moment, but recognition flashed across their face with a snap of their fingers. "Oh! You must be Keith! Nice to meet you, I'm Pidge," they greeted him with a friendly grin, and held out their hand. Keith could feel someone's eyes burning into the side of his head.

"It-it's -" Keith cleared his throat, "it's nice to meet you too," he politely shook their hand. The green that spread over his hand was eerily similar to Matt's. If he hadn't been told that Pidge was the younger sibling, he would have absolutely thought they were twins. A handsome young man stepped forward and stuck his hand out to him.

"I'm Hunk! Great to meet you," he introduced himself warmly. Keith shook his hand and nodded in acknowledgment, with a short 'it's a pleasure'. His pretty yellow spread over Keith. Matt was right when he said Hunk fit his name. He was a hunk.

But then, the one Keith had been very pointedly ignoring stepped forward and determinedly held his hand out. "Lance," he breathed. Those enrapturing sapphire eyes bore right through Keith and all at once his body felt as if it were made of jelly. Keith opened his mouth to say something anything to him. But nothing came out. He just stared at Lance's hand numbly, his own hand hovering nearby. Both Pidge and Hunk were looking at their friend oddly, like they were not expecting him to just introduce himself in such a manner. Did they know? Had Lance told them? Keith didn't know about that, but what he did know, was that he needed to get out of this situation. But he didn't see anyway to escape.

Matt nudged his side. "Keith? What's up?"

Keith blinked rapidly as he realized that he had just been staring at Lance's hand for a good minute. "Nothing, I just -" he ripped his eyes from that striking blue. "I just remembered that Coran asked me to do something. So I've gotta -."

"Oh no you don't!" Lance exclaimed. He lurched forward over the counter and grabbed Keith's hand fiercely. A great blazing heat shot through Keith as their skin made contact. His body locked up as the briefly watched the purple swirl into his scales, both his and Lance's hands turning a murky purple. He tore his hand from Lance's and staggered back, quickly hiding his hand behind his back. "I knew it!" Lance announced, beaming widely. "It's you!"

Keith turned on his heel and ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just to clear things up real quick with the whole keith-is-a-siren-that-survives-on-drinking-blood thing; he can eat normal food and drink water, but it gives his body very little nutrientence, so in order to actually survive on it, he'd have to eat a crap load daily. drinking blood is the only practical way for him to sustain a good health. it doesn't matter too much about what blood he drinks, but human blood gives more benefits and fills him for a long while so he doesn't actually have to drink some every day for like, a week or so. it depends mostly on how much he drinks


End file.
